TV drug program leaves suburbs behind

Tuesday

Mar 25, 2008 at 12:01 AMMar 25, 2008 at 12:38 AM

An A&E documentary highlighting the region’s battle with heroin and OxyContin addiction struck home for many viewers, but its focus on Brockton gave short shrift to the serious problem among young people in other communities.

“We went through everything the families went through,” the Middleboro resident said after watching “Intervention In-Depth: Heroin Hits Home,” Monday night. “It gave me goosebumps.”

Gillon’s son and daughter struggled with OxyContin and heroin addiction — and her family struggled to get them help, including asking a judge to civilly commit them to locked detoxification facilities as some in the documentary also did. Both children are now in recovery.

“It is the last resort,” she said. “It is so heart wrenching.”

The documentary, part of A&E’s “Intervention” series, featured many of the people and issues profiled in The Enterprise’s yearlong package of stories, “Wasted Youth.”

The “Wasted Youth” stories, published between March and December 2007, found that at least 144 people in the area have died within three years from overdoses of opiates, such as heroin, as well as oxycodone, the chief ingredient in the powerful painkiller OxyContin.

The overdose numbers were uncovered after The Enterprise reviewed death certificates filed in 28 cities and towns in the greater Brockton-Taunton area.

The Enterprise also found a growing number of deaths tied to fentanyl, a synthetic opioid 80 times more powerful than morphine that some dealers are mixing with heroin. Fentanyl has been blamed for hundreds of deaths in the country.

While the series highlighted the growing number of teens and young adults in the suburbs using OxyContin and heroin, the A&E documentary featured the struggles of families — and recovering addicts — in Brockton.

Brockton officials, working with the drug treatment program High Point, are now hoping to get a state grant of up to $200,000 to find ways to prevent overdose deaths.

Joanne Peterson, founder of Learn to Cope, a support group for families of opiate addicts, said she was disappointed the documentary didn’t highlight the toll the drugs are taking in the suburbs.

“People watching it will think, ‘Oh, it’s a city problem.’ It’s not,” Peterson, who was featured in the documentary, said. “There were no faces from the suburbs.”

Mary D’Eramo of Abington, whose daughter is now in recovery after dozens of relapses, said the problem is far greater in the towns.

“It is not a city problem,” she said. “It is everywhere. It made it a city story and people will think, of course it happens in the city.”

The airing of the show comes the same week the deputy director of National Drug Control Police plans a visit to Massachusetts to talk about the growing national threat of prescription drug abuse.